By Martin Rogers
FOX Sports Columnist
As statements go, this one — "The United States women’s soccer team has things too easy" — wouldn’t immediately strike you as a remark most people would think has much merit.
Warning heeded, let’s move forward anyway. Here we go: The U.S. women’s soccer team has things too easy.
It is not their fault, and they wish more than anything that it weren't so, but there is not a lot they can do to change things, and it’s not a particularly fair categorization.
As the Tokyo Olympics finally get underway, that’s the reality they are faced with. Heading into the second-most significant event in women’s soccer, behind only the World Cup, the U.S. is facing a field weakened enough that it is guaranteed to take some shine off the gold medal — for whomever ends up winning it.
Alexi Lalas on USWNT Olympic expectations, 'They are expected to bring back gold because that's what this team does'
Two years ago, through a glorious French summer, the Americans were utterly supreme. Led by a star-studded group including Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan and Rose Lavelle, they began the World Cup with a 13-0 demolition of Thailand and never eased up from there, sinking the host nation in the quarterfinal, England in the semis and the Netherlands in the championship game.
Back then, the U.S. was solely focused on adding to its haul of international hardware, but ahead of the semifinal, Rapinoe found time to speak out on the bizarre method used to pick the Olympic field of just 12 teams, four fewer than in the men’s tournament.
"It’s not equal, and it’s not right," Rapinoe told me. "There are teams and players that should have the opportunity to be there. We always want to play the best — and some of the best won’t be there."
The World Cup win in 2019 was the second straight triumph for the U.S. in that competition, and it came with the knowledge that there were no arguments because there really couldn't be any. They were the best, and they had proved it. They had outlasted everyone, each of the leading nations in women’s soccer.
If only things were going to be the same in Tokyo. This is sad and unfortunate and deeply unjust, but the Olympic soccer tournament, for the women, remains embarrassingly truncated. Sure, having 24 teams like the Women’s World Cup (soon to rise to 32) would be impractical, given the limited time frame of the Olympic schedule.
However, the paltry field of 12 teams ensures the feel of an invitational exhibition series, rather than an event that confers the glorious prize of Olympic gold. The U.S. team kicks off in the early hours of Wednesday morning against Sweden, the team that eliminated them from the 2016 Olympics. However, even a third-place finish in the four-team group will probably be enough to advance to the quarterfinals.
To make matters worse, on the women's side there is no proper global qualifying competition. While men’s squads get the opportunity to earn their way into the Games, the women’s field — particularly in Europe — is chosen in a lazy and ineffective way.
With no qualifiers, the three European competitors are picked based on their results at the last World Cup. That means France, which had the misfortune of landing against the U.S. in the quarters two years ago, is out, despite being ranked third in the world.
Out too is Germany, which was protected by neither its No. 2 world ranking nor the fact that it won the Olympic title five years ago in Rio de Janeiro.
"It is to the detriment of soccer," FOX Sports soccer analyst Alexi Lalas told me. "It is disappointing that in this emerging world of women’s soccer that’s getting stronger all the time, all of the great teams will not be there. The Americans have made no secret of the fact they want more competition, they want more teams trying to knock them off their pedestal."
Being part of such a dominant team does not come without ever-present adversity. The fight for greater recognition — and for equal pay — persists, and the simple truth of being the team everyone else wants to beat more than any other is always there.
Facing the strongest teams is a further opportunity to add to the national team’s extraordinary legacy. This time, they are denied that chance. If present, France and Germany would be considered the two strongest and most dangerous threats to the American bid for gold.
This column is in the business of sports writing, not sports administration, but there appears to be a swift and simple fix for this issue, if indeed there is any serious desire to remedy this injustice. Put the field at 16, like on the men’s side, and implement a system of regional qualification for Europe, while giving that region two of the added four spots. If not, this issue is going to creep up again and again.
"We are hurt," France defender Wendi Renard told me after her team was knocked out of the last World Cup, sealing their Olympic absence. "In two ways."
Having the luck of the draw in the World Cup bracket effectively decide who gets to take part in an Olympics is absurd, laughable and just plain wrong.
It is improper that so many fine players won’t get the chance to play in the Olympics — and unfair to a U.S. squad that deserves the right to say they beat the best of the best if they are able to claim gold.
The U.S. is an absolute juggernaut beyond compare. Since 1991, there have been a combined 14 Women’s World Cups and Olympic tournaments. The Americans have won eight of them. The 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, in which Sweden were too strong in a penalty shootout, was one of the rare disappointments.
"You have to remember that this is not just the best team in the world but a collection of rockstars," Lalas added. "We should expect them to win gold, and anything else will be a failure. The way the group of teams that is playing has been reached could be a lot better, although the likelihood is that the outcome will be the same."
Throughout its history, the U.S. women have never shied away from the opportunity for further challenges, for the sternest of tests.
To be without that chance now, with such a monumental prize on the line, doesn’t feel right, doesn’t feel fair and certainly doesn’t feel very Olympian.
Martin Rogers is a columnist for FOX Sports and the author of the FOX Sports Insider Newsletter. You can subscribe to the newsletter here.
